


A Simple Choice

by BlueLightningAndNexus



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Knights of Hanoi - Freeform, Kusanagi is basically Yusaku's dad, M/M, Mentions of Akira Zaizen, Mentions of Aoi Zaizen, Or older brother, Post-Season/Series 01 AU, Redemption, Yusaku is in love with Ryoken, mentions of Spectre
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23207659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueLightningAndNexus/pseuds/BlueLightningAndNexus
Summary: What if, at the end of Season 1, Ryoken decided to join Yusaku. After years of hating himself for being weak and saving Yusaku back when they were boys, Ryoken finally realizes that his weakness was a strength. He betrays the Knights and leaves everything behind in an impulsive decision. Set over the course of a few days, and explores the rapidly-blossoming relationship between these two who, after being denied for so long, can finally act on their feelings for one-another.
Relationships: Fujiki Yuusaku/Revolver | Kougami Ryouken
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. The First Choice

The cyberspace world practically stood still as Playmaker looked onwards at his newly assembled field. Whereas Ryoken had six monsters at the start of the turn, he had since returned Autorokket Dragon to his hand by the effect of that damned Equip Spell, Spam Mail, when it was sent to the GY, leaving behind his impregnable Extra Link. Spam Mail was only sent to the GY because of Gumblar Dragon, Ryoken thought to himself. Just thinking about that mistake on his part, how Gumblar’s effect was used against him, made Ryoken’s blood boil. 

Why, why can’t I just end him?! Ryoken thought, confusion and self-loathing filling the digital molecules of his virtual avatar. Why does he persist so? Why am I unable to stop him? 

Or stop this feeling?

On the other side of the field, Yusaku now had four monsters: Powercode Talker, Transcode Talker, Encode Talker and Swap Cleric. Three Link-3 Code Talkers, just like last time, plus some small fry Cyberse monster. Under any other situation, Ryoken wouldn’t be worried, but now? He had no idea what was going to happen. But it’s not like he was going to show it. 

“Playmaker, having three Code Talkers won’t do you any good,” Ryoken flatly announced. “You already tried that earlier in the duel, and that was before I completed the unstoppable Extra Link. It didn’t work so well then; what makes you think it will work now?”

Yusaku didn’t reply. He stared down across the crimson field, past Ryoken’s hovering arsenal of Link Dragons, past his indestructible formation and impenetrable combos, and into the soul of his opponent. 

“Please, don’t make me finish this duel,” Yusaku pleaded. 

“Begging? That’s pathetic,” Ryoken spat out. “You’re better than this, Playmaker, and we both know it.”

“No, I’m not,” Yusaku stated. “Please, Revolver, let me help you.”

He extended a hand out towards Ryoken, a futile gesture of a fallen friendship that died 10 years ago. 

“Enough!” Ryoken angrily hissed. “If you’re done assembling monsters, then end your turn! You can’t possibly stop me now! You only have 13 life points! You’re finished!”

Yusaku simply shook his head, retracting his hand back towards his Duel Disk. “I don’t want to fight you, Rev—no, Ryoken! I can’t possibly think of a worse way for our story to end!”  
“We have no story!” Ryoken replied. “And don’t call me Ryoken! Ryoken Kogami died 7 years ago, 7 long years before all of this.”

His voice began to break, crack. Yusaku was almost worried that tears would fall down Ryoken’s eyes. No such luck. 

“Ryoken Kogami died the day I learned my father was infected with a virus! One that would leave him completely deprived of the movement of his body, one that eventually put him in a coma, forever banished to the virtual world!”

His anger transforming into an overwhelming, powerful despair right before Yusaku’s eyes, Ryoken continued. 

“Do you know how that feels, Playmaker? Do know that the one person you idolize, the person you want to be like, the person you care about…is gone? Because of you?”

“Your father didn’t die that day,” Yusaku countered, his usual bluntness and coldness gone. “He died today. It wasn’t your fault.”

Giving his former friend a quick moment to regain himself, Yusaku choose to use Ryoken’s silence as an opportunity to further his pleading. 

“Please, I know you must be confused with everything, Ryoken. But you don’t need to be. Come with us, Ai and I. Come with me.”

All at once, that sadness, that despair, that sorrow; it all turned to anger, and hate, and fuel for Revolver. And all at once, that anger became visible in every fiber of his being; he clenched his teeth, his mouth contorting into a hateful, raging scowl; his fists clenched so hard they were shaking; his completely yellow eyes narrowing and focusing only on Yusaku, like a predator concentrating on its prey.   
“I don’t know why I let you distract me like that,” he muttered. “End your turn, Playmaker!” he suddenly shouted. “Next turn, I will end all of LINK VRAINS.”

“But it doesn’t need to be that way!” Yusaku shouted back. “You don’t want me to die, you don’t want me to be buried with this collapsing digital in the past we’ve tried so hard to forget.”  
Revolver scoffed. “How the hell do you know what I feel?”

“Because I feel it,” Yusaku retorted. “I feel it in my heart. I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you.”

Taking a step forward, inching closer to the edge of the field, Yusaku’s injuries were throbbing in pain. This vanishing, fading world might not be real, but the pain sure as hell is. The impact of Gumblar’s Deus Ex Machina from several turns ago had left quite a mark on Playmaker’s avatar; he could barely keep standing without gritting his teeth in pain, and even just continuing the duel (let alone talking with Ryoken) required every ounce of his willpower to keep himself from passing out. And yet, he continued. 

“These last 18 months, I’ve been driven by one thing: revenge. I might never be rid of the scars the Knights of Hanoi inflicted on my heart. It’s especially hard to get rid of such scars at such a young age, and I know I’ll never be free of them. But there is one thing I can do: inflict even worse punishment on whoever I find standing in my way that it splits their soul in half, leaving them broken into nothingness. Only then, after I defeated everyone standing in my way and tore down the organization that destroyed my own life and Jin’s life, could I sleep at night. Only then, would the nightmares leave me.”

Shocked by the suddenly morbid description of his own motivations, Ai said nothing. We only listened intently as Playmaker, his partner, continued. 

“When I first encountered you those many weeks ago, I only thought of you as another step to my goal. Another body to fall after facing me. But Rev—Ryoken, you proved me wrong.”

Determined to reach out to his friend, Yusaku took another agonizing step forward as pain jolted through the nerves of his digital body. Yusaku’s face visibly softened. A smile, a genuine smile appeared on his face as he reminisced over everything he had been through recently, recreating the memories in his mind as he spoke without the perception of war and revenge. 

“You proved me wrong, because I didn’t even need to do anything to you for your soul to split. That happened on its own.”

“You’re wrong,” Revolver emotionlessly replied. 

Smile still cemented onto his face, Yusaku could only shake his head. “No, I’m not,” he said, an uncharacteristically bright smile planted onto his avatar, bright as the sun and the many stars. “You’re confused because your father taught you that anyone who has opposed the Knights is an enemy, but you also felt something, have been feeling something towards me.”

Covering his face and groaning in frustration, Revolver looked down at the ground, annoyed and ashamed. 

“So what if I am confused?” he grumbled. “Even if I do have regrets, even if I do have questions without answers, what good do they do me? I’m too far gone for any doubts to make a difference. It doesn’t matter what I feel, it only matters what I do anymore.” 

“Then why fight me if you’re so confused?”

“It’s better than the alternative,” Ryoken apathetically responded. 

“Which is?”

“Indecisiveness,” Ryoken flatly told him. “An uncertainty as to my own alignment in my life. If I finish you right here, right now in this duel…maybe then, I can gain the closure I’ve been looking for. It’s what me father would’ve wanted.”

“But it doesn’t have to be this way!” Yusaku pleaded. 

Ryoken simply nodded in his head in agreement. “You’re right. It doesn’t have to be this way. But how can I be sure anything else will give me satisfaction? How else will I end this aching, hollow sensation in my heart?”

A moment of silence, of recognition. Yusaku realized that he mirrored his opponent in more ways than one. 

Ai, ever a conversationalist, could only express his disappointment. “We were so close to getting to him! Why does he have to be so stubborn, Playmaker!”

Yusaku didn’t respond. He simply maintained eye contact with Ryoken as he announced his next move. 

“Unfortunately for you, Ryoken, I won’t be ending my turn just yet. Appear, the circuit that leads to the future!”

Yusaku opened up his right palm and extended it towards the digital, black sky; white energy concentrating in a sphere in his gloved hand. Instantly appearing several meters above him was the familiar emblem of Link Monsters: a dark square with triangular shapes on each of the four cardinal directions and the four diagonals, for a total of eight Link Markers. 

“The Link materials are at least 2 monsters! I set Link-3 Encode Talker and Swap Cleric as the Link Monsters!”

Quickly deriving a conclusion, Ryoken suddenly realized what was happening. 

“No,” he whispered, a rare moment of fear materializing in his tone, “you’re bringing him out, aren’t you?!”

“That’s correct,” Yusaku confidently responded. “I’m bring out my strongest Cyberse.”

Swap Cleric turned into a spiral of light brown wind-like energy, Encode Talker doing the same to its left; except turning into a slightly larger spiral of white energy with yellow streaks to it. Encode’s spiral split into two gusts of whirlwind, and immediately afterwards, into three. One of Encode Talker’s three spirals struck the Center-Left triangle on the Link Emblem, turning the triangle bright red. A second struck the Center-Right triangle, turning it the same color. A third struck the Center-Down arrow. Finally, the light brown whirlwind that was once Swap Cleric struck the Center-Up arrow. Suddenly, the Link Emblem, black in its center, glowed a magnificent sapphire-tinted white. 

The Extra Deck slit of his Duel Disk opened, and a familiar blue-outlined card emerged from it. Yusaku took both Swap Cleric and the adjacent Encode Talker and placed them in his graveyard slot, before grabbing the familiar draconic monster and practically slapping it on his Duel Disk. 

“Appear, Firewall Dragon!” Yusaku and Ai cried in unison. 

A bolt of thin, white lightning shot out of the Link Emblem into the floor, illuminating the entire battle arena for a few moments. When the light faded, it left the mechanical, draconic monster in an upright position, wings extended outwards and fiery eyes burning holes into Ryoken’s soul. It was in the second-to-last monster slot from the right on Yusaku’s side of the field, the same position that Encode Talker was in moments ago. 

“…Wait a minute…” Ryoken whispered as he examined Firewall and its placement on the Duel Field, particularly its relation to Topologic Gumblar Dragon and Powercode Talker. “It can’t be!”

“What? What is it!?” Ai frantically asked as he looked up at Yusaku. 

“Look closely,” Yusaku told his partner. 

And suddenly, it all clicked for Ai. “Y-you’ve made your own Extra Link!” the program enthusiastically shouted at Yusaku. Sure enough, it all fit together like a puzzle. Ryoken obviously had his own Extra Link with the three Borrel monsters and the two Topologic Dragons in each Extra Monster Zone. Topologic Bomber Dragon was co-linked to Transcode Talker by their Link Markers pointing upwards at each other; Transcode was then in turn co-linked to Powercode; and the newly summoned Firewall Dragon was co-linked to both Powercode Talker and Topologic Bomber Dragon. 

“That’s amazing! You’re amazing, Playmaker!” Ai joyfully shouted at his partner. 

“Regardless,” Ryoken told the two with a scoff, “It’s 2500 ATK isn’t enough to stop any of my five dragons! They all have 3000 ATK!” Ryoken shouted at the two. 

“That’s not what our objective is!” Ai shouted back, equally loud. “We still have Firewall’s effect. Once per turn, when our monster is co-linked with at least one other Link monster, we can return monsters from either player’s field or graveyard to their hand!”

Pointing out at the field in front of him, Ai looked up at Yusaku. “Playmaker! We can defeat him right now: Firewall is co-linked to two monsters now, Powercode and that Gumblar Dragon!”

Before Yusaku or Ryoken could interrupt him, Ai turned his attention back to Ryoken. 

“Revolver! We can destroy your Extra Link!”

Surprised at Ai’s in-depth explanation, Yusaku was briefly impressed with Ai, if only for a moment before Ryoken started howling with laughter. “Hey! What’s so funny, Revolver?!”

Ryoken briefly collected his composure, before returning his attention back to Yusaku and the small, humanoid program on his Duel Disk. “I can’t believe this is considered the peak of Artificial Intelligence by SOL,” he told the duo, gesturing at Ai with a hand wave as he did so. “Your effects won’t work on me!”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Ai shouted back. 

“No, he’s right,” Yusaku monotonously told the artificial intelligence. “Remember Gumblar’s final effect? As long as Ryoken controls Link Monsters, and those monsters are forming an Extra Link with Gumblar, none of them can be targeted with card effects.”

And all at once, Ai’s enthusiasm at the current situation faded. 

“Oh, yeah,” he disappointedly replied as he sunk back into his seat on Yusaku’s Duel Disk. “Sorry, Playmaker.”

“No worries,” Yusaku told him. “This still gives us a tremendous advantage. I have a plan.”

“Oh? What can you possibly do now?” Ryoken mockingly asked. “An Extra Link won’t help you at this stage of the game, especially not with your Life Points that low, or when I already have an Extra Link of my own!”

“We could use Powercode’s effect!” Ai exclaimed. “It has 2300 ATK, but because it’s co-linked to Transcode, Transcode gives it 500 more ATK! If we tribute Firewall or Transcode, then Powercode’s ATK would double to…uh…”

For all of the inventiveness of an Artificial Intelligence program with free will and a mind of its own, Ai was not good at many things, and mathematics was one of them.   
“5600,” Yusaku answered. 

“Wait, really??” Ai exclaimed. “That’s great!”

“That’s quite powerful, but not what I had in mind. I was planning on something different.”  
“Oh? Why not use the effect?”

“Because I would still be alive,” Ryoken piped up from the other side of the dueling field. “All of my dragons have 3000 ATK. Even if Powercode attacked one of them and you used its effect, I would only take 2600 damage, but I have 2800 life. I’ll still be standing. Then, next turn, I will defeat you.”

Ai sighed and, defeated, fell onto his back. “Geez, he’s really got us in a pickle, huh?” Ai thought aloud. 

Once again electing to ignore the program, Yusaku turned his attention to Revolver—no, Ryoken. Facing his opponent, his friend, the voice that guided him all those years ago, from across the battlefield, Yusaku announced the effect of another monster of his. 

“I now activate the effect of Swap Cleric!” Yusaku declared as he pointed up at Firewall Dragon with his right hand. “Because Swap Cleric was used as material to Link Summon a Link Monster, that monster’s ATK automatically decreases.”

The red-tinted ATK gauge for Firewall Dragon appeared in front of both player’s field of vision, and the numbers rapidly fell, decreasing from 2500 to 2000 in an instant. At the same time, this was represented on the field by a yellow aura forming, which covered the mechanical dragon, encompassing its metallic exterior. 

“Why would you possibly do that?” Ryoken retorted. 

Yusaku chuckled. “It seems you don’t fully comprehend Swap Cleric’s effect,” he replied as a thin, sly grin appeared on his face. 

“What the hell does that mean,” Ryoken spat out. 

Suddenly, the memory of his previous fight with Yusaku flashed through Ryoken’s mind. Of Yusaku using Swap Cleric and one of those Cyberse Tokens in order to Link Summon. 

“Observe, Revolver. You remember our last duel, right. In exchange for my Link monster loosing 500 ATK, I can then draw one card.”

Placing his index and middle finger on the top of his deck, Yusaku quietly spoke to himself, thinking aloud as he mentally prepared himself for the following draw. 

“Everything depends on this,” he whispered, eyes gently closed. Memories of everything leading up to this draw flashed through Yusaku’s mind: meeting Ai, fighting Cracking Dragon for the first time; meeting Aoi and Go; fighting Ghost Girl, Akira, and Faust, and telling the Zaizen’s about his past. 

It all came to him at once. Not as memories, but as strength. As knowledge. The knowledge that if he was able to go through all of that, fight so many people, do so much for his revenge; then he was strong enough to defeat his best friend, here and now. 

“I…DRAW!”

Emerald eyes shooting open, Yusaku suddenly pulled out the top card of his deck with deck, looking at the dark green outline. A Spell Card, he thought, and not just any Spell Card...  
…but one that will surely lead to me victory. 

Barely even giving himself a second to calculate his strategies, and before Ai could even read the card or Ryoken could understand what he was doing, Yusaku slapped the card onto his Duel Disk, activating it. 

“I play the Continuous Spell Card, Zero Extra Link!”

Materializing in one of his Spell and Trap Zones, the card appeared before Ryoken; on the card was an image of several multi-colored mechanical spheres all connecting into a circle through a series of mutually-pointing triangular arrows, similar to the Link Markers of a Link Monster. 

“If there’s a co-linked monster in the Extra Monster Zone, I can activate this card by targeting one monster that’s co-linked to it,” explained Yusaku. Pointing over at Transcode Talker, the Link-3 monster in front of him covered in brown-and-orange battle armor; Yusaku continued his explanation. “I target Transcode Talker with this effect!” he exclaimed. “By the second effect of Zero Extra Link, the targeted monster now gains 800 ATK for every single Extra Linked monster on the field, including yours, Ryoken!”

“WHAT!” Ai shouted. “That’s amazing!”

Suddenly, a cloud of white-and-yellow electricity appeared on the ground underneath where Transcode Talker stood on the field, instantly crawling up the EARTH-attribute Code Talker’s feet and moving up to its legs, then its chest, then its head and arms. This cloud split into two and spread both forwards, towards Topologic Bomber Dragon, and to the left, towards Powercode Talker. Rapidly spreading in the blink of an eye like an electrical virus, this cloud consumed Borrelsword, then Borreload, then Firewall, then Borrelguard, then finally meeting in Ryoken’s Topologic Gumblar Dragon. The clouds all met together in Gumblar Dragon, forming a square of energy across both players’ fields. 

The ATK gauge of Transcode Talker spiked upwards. Transcode was already at 2800 ATK due to being co-linked with at least one monster; that number climbed to 9200 in an instant. Transcode raised its right arm, hand and wrist transforming into a cannon, the same cannon that nearly killed Ryoken during their last duel; a cannon ready to obliterate Borreload Dragon and blast it into nothingness.   
But it wouldn’t. Not this time. 

A sinister smile appeared on Ryoken’s face. “You thought you could beat me with an Extra Link of your own, but you’re wrong! I activate my facedown Trap Card, Link Short. Now, all of your co-linked monsters lose their effects and are unable to attack this turn!”

That cloud of energy suddenly disappeared, and all at once Transcode suddenly froze in place, its arm reverting back into its normal form. 

“No!” Ai shouted. “We were so close!”

The fear that Ryoken had over the second Extra Link and Firewall Dragon, the anxiety he would be beaten yet again, the despair he would have at never properly avenging his father or gaining closure on this friend of his from so long ago; it all faded at once. Overwhelmed with relief, Ryoken could do nothing but laugh. 

“Now all of your efforts are for naught! Do you see, Playmaker? There is no confusion in my system! Only determination!” 

“Is that so?” Yusaku smugly replied. Holding out his hand towards the vanishing obsidian sky, he once again opened up the circuit that has changed his life.   
“Appear, for the final time! The circuit that changes the future!”

The Link Emblem appearing once again, Ryoken’s laugh continued. “What can you possibly do in a situation like this!?”

Determination and concentrating flooding his emerald eyes, Yusaku prepared the summoning conditions for his true ace monster. 

“Instead of using each of my Link monsters as materials equal to their Link Rating, I’ll treat each as a single material! With summoning conditions of at least two effect monsters, I set Firewall Dragon, Transcode Talker and Powercode Talker in the Link Markers!"

Firewall Dragon roared a triumphant, draconic battle cry, before he transformed into a light gray whirlwind. Powercode and Transcode followed shortly afterwards, turning into deep, dark orange and light brown whirlwinds. All three spirals concentrated into the Center-Up, Down-Left and Down-Right triangular Link Markers of the Link Emblem, turning them bright red as they did so.   
“I Link Summon, my ultimate monster! Decode Talker!”

Swiftly removing his three Link monsters from the field and putting them in the graveyard compartment of his Duel Disk, before pulling out and slamming the familiar card for Decode onto his Duel Disk; Yusaku confidently turned his attention back to Ryoken as he placed Decode onto the second-to-the left Main Monster Zone, the one that Topologic Bomber Dragon points to. 

“Now, all of my monsters are gone! Decode Talker may be co-linked to your monster, but Link Short only applies if my monsters are linked to each other. Therefore, it’s useless if I only control one monster!”

Link Short shattered like glass from Ryoken’s Spell and Trap Zone into millions of tiny, golden-glowing fragments of digital matter. 

“And don’t forget!” Ai shouted, “because Decode Talker is pointing towards a monster, it gains 500 ATK!”

The ATK gauge on Decode increased from 2300 to 2800, but the power boost did not stop there. 

“Furthermore, I activate the final effect of my Continuous Spell Card, Zero Extra Link!” Yusaku told his opponent. “Because a Link Monster targeted with Zero Extra Link I controlled was used as Link Material for a new Link Summon, the resulting monster gains the ATK increase of the original!”

“WHAT!” 

“That’s correct,” Yusaku bluntly replied. “At the time of its activation, there were 8 Extra Linked monsters on the field, so Transcode Talker gained 6400 ATK points! Now, Decode gains that same amount!”  
For the second time in only a few moments, the ATK points on Yusaku’s Code Talker increased from 2800 to 9200. As this happened, the massive blade of plasma and steel in Decode Talker’s hand began to glow a dull shade of golden fire, and the blade nearly doubled in size. 

“Decode Talker, attack Borreload Dragon! Decode End!” 

Decode Talker swung down its gargantuan sword, a stream of energy blasting off of the tip of the weapon into the sky in a beacon of power, before coming down in an arc, parallel to the ground and crashing into Borreload Dragon, incinerating it into dust. Instantly, Ryoken’s HP gauge plummeted from 2800 to 0 while white energy enveloped the entire field, blinding him momentarily. Rather than resist or cry out in any way, Ryoken simply adjusted his stance, faced the attack head on and closed his eyes, accepting his fate.   
______________________________________  
At first, consumed in white light, Ryoken thought he had died. It took a few moments for his ringing ears to notice some nearby, frantic cries and for the light to fade from his vision before he regained perception of his surroundings. 

“Ryoken! Ryoken, are you alright!”

He wanted to be mad, to be furious. But he couldn’t be. He was only relieved. 

When his sight restored a few moments later, Ryoken found Yusaku cradling him in his arms like a child. Only one thought ran through the disgraced cyber-terrorist’s mind:  
I…lost.   
…am I glad I did?

“Y…you made it,” Ryoken whispered. 

“What?”

“…a choice,” he weakly, softly spoke. “…I…lost. You made one for me…so I didn’t have to.”

A rare, honest yet small smile settled onto Ryoken’s face. His digital helmet was cracked and fractured throughout, but the expression was plain as the eye could see. After a moment of pondering his words, Yusaku spoke. 

“You’re wrong, you know.”

“What?”

“You’re wrong,” Yusaku repeated. “About your father. He wasn’t the only person to care about you.”

If he wasn’t in pain and with the wind knocked out of him from Decode Talker’s game-finishing final move, Ryoken would’ve laughed. Instead, he settled for exhaling a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding. 

“I see that now.”

Yusaku propped Ryoken’s head up against his arms, adjusting his position on the ground to better face his friend. 

“You knew this whole time, didn’t you?” Ryoken asked. 

“Knew what?”

“That I was your special person.”

Each of their smiles brightened and grew as Yusaku recounted his own train of thought. 

“I realized that I didn’t want you to fall before me. I wanted you to join me. It wasn’t for another week after our duel in the center of that Data Storm that I knew why: I realized that the expression on your face when I recited my mantra of three wasn’t confusion; it was recognition. Only one other person could have possibly known what I was referring to, and that was the voice. The lost voice from the Lost Incident.”

Lacing their fingers together, Ryoken looked up at Yusaku’s jade eyes. “Congrats on your victory, Playmaker.”

Readjusting the positions of their hands, Yusaku spoke. “Call me Yusaku. Yusaku Fujiki.”

“I’ll make sure to do that.”

After what was roughly a minute of silence (probably a record-breaker for the Artificial Intelligence), Ai piped up from Yusaku’s duel disk. 

“Wait, we’re all friends now? Weren’t we just fighting this guy a minute ago?”

Neither Yuskau nor Ryoken responded. Ai sighed. After a while, Ryoken answered the question. 

“Are we friends?” 

“I’m not sure,” Yusaku replied. “I hope we can be. Friendship is a two-way street.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Before Yusaku could follow up, Ai spoke again. “What now, Playmaker?”

“I’m not sure, partner.”

The world stood still for what felt like hours, or perhaps days, as Yusaku gently held Ryoken in his arms, Ai staying silent. Finally, Ryoken whispered something. “I’m going to log out now, Yusaku.”  
“As will I, Ryoken.”

Yusaku pulled Ryoken to his feet. Once the two were looking face-to-face, maintain the grip a bit longer than they needed to, Yusaku opened up the VRAINS menu. Before either could hit the button, Ryoken spoke. 

“What am I to do?”

“Come with me,” Yusaku replied, instantly and without hesitation. Ryoken didn’t speak for a while, but when he finally did, it was a soft, broken voice belonging to a broken man. The same voice that spoke to Yusaku all those years ago. The same voice that gave him hope every dawn and filled his memories during each dusk. “I’m not the person you think I am,” Ryoken told Yusaku. “I’m a bad person.”

“A bad person wouldn’t have saved me.”

“At the very least, I’m not a good person.”

Holding out three fingers with his right hand, taking Ryoken’s thin fingers and lacing them into his own with his left, Yusaku spoke, his voice firm and tender. “#1, I don’t care if you’re not the person I thought you were for so many years. #2, I don’t need you to be a good person. #3, I just need you to be my good person.”

A second of hesitation. Ryoken thought he was going to cry. Pulling apart his hand from Yusaku’s, he practically growled in frustration. He ripped off his shattered, darkened glass helmet, which dissolved into virtual dust as he did so, revealing underneath a face identical to his own in the real world. 

“I don’t know if I can join you. Mentally, I mean. I spent so long trying to fulfill my father’s wishes, now his last wish, to join you seems almost…unnatural. Unnerving”

“The Knights of Hanoi are disbanded,” Yusaku announced. “You have no reason to keep fighting. To not join me.”

“Of course I have a reason to not join you. You are a protector of the Cyberse World and the Ignis. It stands against everything I was raised to believe in.”

“But does it stand against everything you believe in?”

Ryoken did not answer, for he did not know if there was an answer to that question. 

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Yusaku resumed, “but I’ll tell you what I won’t say. I’m not going to tell you that revenge isn’t the answer, that conflict, that fighting isn’t the answer. That depends on you. I’m not going to tell you that the aching hollowness in your heart will ever leave. But I will tell you this: no one can make the decision but you. I can persuade you one way or another, but ultimately, the choice is yours.”

Advancing towards the taller man until there was only a space of a few inches between them, Yuskau wrapped up his message. “So, tell me, Ryoken Kogami: what do you want to do?”

“You want me to come with you, of course.”

“Of course I do,” Yusaku told him. “But if you need time to register everything that’s happened and make some critical decisions in your life, I’m willing to give you that time. I’ve waited 10 years to tell you all of this, to save you. I can wait a little while longer.”

“But you don’t want me to do that,” Ryoken said, slightly adjusting his stance to be even closer. “You want me to be with you.”

“I also don’t want you to be unsure of yourself and miserable with your decisions.”

Finally, the two friends-turned-enemies-turned-rivals-turned-friends-again slowly reached towards their “Logout” buttons, unflinching eye contact as they did so. Yusaku was the first to click the button.

Then, it began to fade. 

Yusaku wanted to say something in this moment, something that he wasn’t quite sure of himself, but something that he could feel on his tongue. Unable to properly analyze his own feelings and articulate them into a comprehensible sentence, Yusaku simply settled for something else entirely. 

“Don’t be long,” he said, before clicking the button, an enduring, stable smile crossing his face. A smile from another time. Another person. Another life. 

“I won’t be.”

He wasn’t. And he never will be again.


	2. Kusanagi Being a Bro, basically

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kusanagi find Ryoken and Yusaku after they wake up from the duel. Yusaku has to convince him that, no, Ryoken is not trying to kill them in their sleep. All while trying to hide his gargantuan crush on the (ex) cyber terrorist.

When Yusaku regained consciousness in the small, Oceanside home of the Kogami family, he felt as if he was being reborn. 

The last thing he saw before he logged out was Ryoken’s face looking up at him. Then, everything faded into the virtual void of VRAINS, and suddenly, Yusaku was being bathed in a brilliant golden light, the light of a vanishing dusk. 

He stood still on the hard ground for a few minutes, letting his senses all come back to him at once. Sight was the first to register as he observed the light gray ceiling; the massive window to his right that practically consumed the entire wall it was built on; the orange rays of the sunset shooting out past the glass into the living room; and the ocean below him. 

Then, touch came back. Specifically, pain and temperature. Yusaku suddenly became aware of how cold the unforgiving, pitiless ground of the Kogami household was; and he felt a stiffness in his joints. He had been in VRAINS for nearly the entire day, and his body being left in such a near-comatose state while his mind traveled through the virtual world was starting to wreak havoc on his appendages and motor controls. 

Then smell and taste, ever connected were the two senses. The seawater burning up in his mouth and nose become apparent. 

Then, last to the party, hearing. The sound of birds chirping. The sound dull sound of a monitor flat lining, hauntingly echoing throughout the room. The waves of the powerful ocean crashing onto the rocks below that formed the foundation for the entire mansion. The dull moan of a familiar body. 

Yusaku jolted up, pain soaring through the muscles in his neck like lightning flying through a piece of steel. But he didn’t care about that throbbing sensation, just his friend. Ignoring every muscle fiber of his body screaming at him and telling him to give himself a second to rest before he moved anything, Yusaku leaped upwards. Almost instantly, his legs very nearly gave out, but he got himself, slapping an extended palm against the warm glass of the ocean-facing window, holding up his body weight as best he could, knees wobbling and ankles shaking. 

He saw Ryoken across from him in the room. Rather than laying flat on the ground like Yusaku was when he went under and fell into the VRAINS, Ryoken had propped himself up against the nearby window, just out of Yusaku’s initial line of sight when he first awoke. 

Ryoken was rubbing his head, a dull ache going through his mind. 

“Jesus,” grumbled the older boy as he craned his head to the side, trying to crack his neck, “I never realized how much an attack in VRAINS can hurt in the real world.”

Suddenly realizing the gravity of what he just said, Ryoken’s eyes widened in shock, his previous statement combining with his memories of their past duels. 

“Oh, my god,” he mouthed. “This must be what it felt like when Borreload attacked you in that datastorm all those months ago.”

“It’s fine,” Yusaku quickly assured him before his friend could begin to spiral into panic, doubt and anxiety. “You’re fine, you didn’t know.”

“No, it’s not fine. After spending so long trying to defeat you, I’m only just now registering the pain my endeavors must have caused.”

“I already told you,” Yusaku replied, “it’s fine.” His voice was louder, slightly more assertive, yet carrying an assuring, comforting air to his words. “Besides, Ai got you back, biting off your arm after that second duel.”

Ryoken placed his index and middle finger together, before gently placing it on his arm, as if he were taking his own pulse; but rather than placing his fingers on top of an artery where the bottom of the hand and the end of his forearm met, he ran his fingers lower, down to a space of his pale skin a few centimeters above his elbow. 

Now, it was Yusaku’s turn to feel guilty. “Now I feel as if I should apologize for that,” Yusaku grumpily told him, awkwardly and cocking his head to the side and towards the view of the bright water. 

“Let’s just agree not to revisit out past conflicts,” Ryoken told him as he reached his arm out above him. Grabbing a light brown bookshelf filled with small delicate chronicles of history, textbooks of computer science and novels of vanished, fantastical worlds; Ryoken pulled himself up, supporting his body weight with his arm much like Yusaku mere moments ago. 

“We should get your father.”

“No,” Ryoken quickly told him. “I’m going to get some clothes and books, then call an ambulance. Tell them that I was getting some food at your friend’s truck and he suddenly flat lined.”  
“What?”

“I highly doubt anyone could connect me to the Knights, I’ve done a good job at covering my tracks.”

“That’s not going to work!” Yusaku exclaimed, suddenly shouting. Ryoken looked visibly surprised, shocked at the sudden flash of frustration. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped.”

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why? Why won’t that work?”

Pulling out the small, archaic cellular phone he used for emergency contact (primarily with Kusanagi) out of a pocket of his school uniform, Yusaku checked the time. “We were in there for 50 minutes. I don’t know much about these life-support machines, but they might notice he flat lined quite a while ago and get suspicious you didn’t call sooner.” 

“No need to worry,” Ryoken said as he turned around, quickly walking into the expansive kitchen of the Kogami residence. Yusaku instinctively followed the older boy, listening intently and silently as Ryoken continued to speak. “Change of plans,” Ryoken uttered as he grabbed a small cell phone, similar to Yusaku’s own but with a pearl and cream-colored protective case, “I’ll tell them I was out running some errands.”

“This is awfully sudden,” Yusaku observed. 

“What?”

“This. Your behavior. Ai was right, only a little bit ago we were fighting in VRAINS. Now look at us.”

“What about us?”

“You’re quickly burying everything your father stood for, as if it never mattered.”

“But you’re not complaining, right?”

“Of course not. That’d be ridiculous.” 

“It would be.”

A moment occurred between the two, indescribable. A sense of harmonization, synchronization, like they were on the same wavelength, sharing the same mind space: Yusaku breathlessly observing his long absent friend, entranced by the sight of his former enemy in front of him; Ryoken suddenly fired-up and concentrating on a once-unachievable future in front of him. 

“You were right,” Ryoken told Yusaku. “These last few months, it’s like I’ve been split down the middle. One half of me belonging to my father, the other half to you.”

Suddenly taking his friend’s hands in his own, Ryoken smiled for the first time since entering the real world. 

“Leaving everything and everyone behind was once a fantasy. But you…you’re finally here. You’re finally real!”

His hands were colder than they were in LINK VRAINS, and Yusaku didn’t know if that was because he wasn’t wearing his usual white gloves or because he was in the warmth of the real world, but he didn’t care. Putting his hands up against Yusaku’s cheeks, a loving gesture that transcended the shortness of their only recently renewed relationship, Ryoken felt as if he were dreaming. Yet he wasn’t. Everything around him was cold, hard reality and he loved it. 

“It’s high-time I made a choice. Choose a side. Everything about us since we first reunited those many months ago has been propelling me towards this moment, this future, and I’m not letting it slip away. Not again.”

Suddenly aware of what he was doing and what he was saying, Ryoken and Yusaku pulled away from each other, both furiously blushing. “Sorry for initiating physical contact,” Ryoken told him, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, “that might’ve gone too far.”

“No, it’s fine,” Yusaku said, looking down at the ground, trying to hide both his blush and how much he actually enjoyed physical contact in the real world. “It’s not a prob-“

Yusaku was interrupted by the sudden sound of a door slamming open and hitting a wall, followed by rapid footsteps and shouting. “YUSAKU!” Kusanagi shouted from the living room. Ryoken and Yusaku shared a knowing look; anxiety brimming in the gaze of the latter. Wordlessly cocking his head to the side and gesturing towards the living room and Kusanagi, Ryoken shed his embarrassed expression in favor of a charismatic smile that practically screamed, “It’ll be alright”. 

Yusaku was the first to step out of the kitchen. Instantly, Kusanagi ran over to the young, pulling him in for a brotherly, protective hug. 

“Oh thank god!” Kusanagi shouted as he practically buried Yusaku into his shoulder with his embrace, “I didn’t see you or Revolver on the ground and got worried!”

“About that…”

“Hey,” Kusanagi asked as he released Yusaku, “where is that guy anyways?”

Looking a few feet behind him, Kusanagi’s eyes widened as they made visual contact with the (ex) cyber terrorist. Without hesitation, Kusanagi placed an arm onto Yusaku’s back, practically throwing the teen behind him. 

“Stay back!” Kusanagi shouted, placing himself firmly between the two. “I’m not letting you touch him!”

“It’s fine,” Yusaku anxiously told his guardian as he placed a hand on the shoulder of Kusanagi’s brown coat, “he’s not going to hurt me.”

“How do you know?!” Kusanagi inquired, all while refusing to pull his gaze away from Ryoken. 

“If he wanted to, he would’ve done it already. He had a multitude of opportunities and he turned them away.”

Turning around, Kusanagi looked over at Yusaku with a fearful look in his eye, brimming with an anger Yusaku had only seen once before. Was this anger directed at him? Or Ryoken? Or Both? During Playmaker’s duel with Akira Zaizen, Kusanagi was furious at the SOL Director on behalf of Jin. This anger was similar, but cautionary in nature, almost…disappointed at its fundamental nature. 

All this time, Ryoken was completely silent. His face was completely emotionless, devoid of any tick or expression that could possibly give either guardian or ward some amount of insight into what he was thinking or feeling at the moment. Ryoken knew that no matter what he said, it would be quite futile against Kusanagi’s biases against him. He didn’t blame him. Why would he?

“Yusaku, we can’t trust him. He’s the Hanoi leader. He took that Zaizen girl hostage, put her in a coma.”

“That wasn’t me,” Ryoken told the older man, “that was my associate. Spectre. I believe you’re aware of him.”

“Of course I am!” Kusanagi hissed, briefly looking back at the Kogami heir, before returning his focus back to his ward. “But you were ordering around Spectre. How do we know you won’t do that to Yusaku? Or me and my family?”

“I can see that no matter what I say in response to that question, you won’t believe I wasn’t in charge of endangering Aoi Zaizen’s life, so I won’t bother to defend myself,” Ryoken apathetically told him, the first time he spoke during the entire conversation. 

“That’s ridiculous,” Yusaku told his friend and ex-rival. Turning to Kusanagi, he repeated the sentiment. “Of course he should be able to defend himself in this conversation. Justify what happened and explain why and how it happened.”

“His reasons for hating me are justified by the circumstances, Yusaku,” Ryoken told him, practically sinking his own chances of Kusanagi’s approval. Yusaku made a mental note to discuss this suicidal conversational tactic with the white-haired teen later. 

“At least we agree on something,” Kusanagi hissed. Giving the disgraced Hanoi leader a death glare, Kusanagi flipped back to his ward. “There’s nothing to explain. People like him don’t change. He’s not a good person.”

“Of course he is,” Yusaku told his guardian. Yusaku thought of Ryoken’s own similar assertion after their duel. “He wouldn’t have saved me if he wasn’t.”

“That was 10 years ago!” Kusanagi declared, practically shouted. Sighing, he leaned in slightly forward, his voice decreasing in volume as he spoke. “People like him don’t change. They can’t.”

Placing a hand on Yusaku’s shoulder, the tone, depth and meaning to Kusanagi’s voice shifted, expressing a level of pride and accomplishment. “Don’t you see, Yusaku? We did it! We defeated Dr. Kogami! No one will ever have to suffer like you and Jin and everyone else, ever again. We can go home now. We’ve saved plenty of people. We don’t need to save one more.”

“They’re not mutually exclusive,” Yusaku hissed back. “We can save Ryoken and defeat his father. We already did the latter, now we need to accomplish the former.”

“We don’t need to do anything!” Kusanagi whispered. “I know he’s your special person, the voice from all those years ago, but that’s not a reason to excuse what has happened. He nearly killed Ghost Girl, have you already forgotten!”

“But he didn’t. Bessho lives.”

“That doesn’t matter. It was the intent, not the result. He nearly destroyed the Internet. He’s an extremist. If it weren’t for you, today would have gone down in history as the day the virtual world was destroyed and the online economy crumbled as a consequence of the world’s greatest cyber terrorist attack.”

Suddenly consumed with an intensity, a dedication to his friend that Kusanagi hadn’t seen in…ever, Yusaku held out a closed fist, then opened it up with 3 fingers.   
“I have three reasons why Ryoken should be allowed to come with me. #1, he is my special person, yes. I won’t deny it, that’s the primary reason for what I am doing what I am. But my point is that he’s doing this of his own free will!”

Looking back at Ryoken with pleading eyes, Yusaku felt himself start to lose his composure, but he didn’t care. Kusanagi needed to hear this. Ryoken needed to hear this. 

“#2, He saved me all those years ago!” Yusaku practically shouted. “People don’t change, you’re right. By that logic, he is the same person that he was all those years ago, the same person that saved me and gave me so much hope. Finally, #3, he wasn’t the one that initiated the Lost Incident. He was only a child. He told the police, Kusanagi. He didn’t capture us; he freed us, and he freed me. He freed Jin.”

Ryoken would never admit it, but watching his friend fight for his behalf was a sight that had his heart pounding against his chest like a jackhammer. A sight that filled him with dread, and anxiety. Regret. Will this really work? Will he truly, genuinely be able to integrate himself back into the real world given everything that’s happened, everything that he’s done?

Ryoken could barely figure out if he was referring to himself or Yusaku. Either way, nothing would ever be the same. Not really. They could pretend, sure, but deep in their hearts, they would both know that their history was too messed up for everything to ever feel normal. 

Eyes shaking and filling with moisture, Yusaku was practically begging by now. It didn’t matter. He swallowed his pride and moved on. 

“And now, it’s my turn to free him. From his own past.”

The mention of his brother snapped Shoichi out of his emotional state, the whiplash shocking him. He hadn’t even thought about his brother. The connection that Jin has to Ryoken. If what Revolver and Yusaku say is true…if Revolver really did free Jin all those years ago…he can’t be a bad person, Kusanagi thought. I have it in me to hate the man who captured my brother, tortured him, imprisoned him…but I can’t possibly be expected to hate the man who freed him. 

Kusanagi’s thoughts turned to Jin, and from there, to time. Age, specifically. This man in front of him and Yusaku…wasn’t really a man. Probably closer to 17, maybe 18 years of age. Not so different from Yusaku’s own age. 10 years ago…that was when the Lost Incident began. It would have put Revolver at 7 years old, maybe 8. Not much older than Jin was when he was captured. 

It pained Shoichi to think about how Jin was only a child when he was captured, as it always did. But he pushed the thought aside. If the chronology is accurate, Revolver is just a teenager. And Kusanagi refused to think that a teenager was irredeemable or past the point of being saved. 

Kusanagi remembered the conversation with Revolver earlier, in this same room, before he fought Yusaku for the last time. He was obviously dedicated to his father, obsessively so, one could argue. Even at that age, even that dedicated to his father, Revolver still rebelled against Dr. Kogami. Still had such a strong moral compass that he disobeyed the Hanoi leader. At 8 years old, he still saved Jin.   
Even as uncomfortable as the thought made him, Kusanagi couldn’t deny the logic to it. To do so would be against his better judgement. I finally have a chance to repay my debt to the man that saved my brother so long ago; to spit in the face of the chance that destiny has given me and condemn this person would be cruel. 

Looking at Yusaku, teary-eyed and patiently awaiting Kusanagi’s response, the latter admitted something to himself: he couldn’t pretend he was only thinking about Jin. He wanted Yusaku to be happy. Yes, it felt like a one-in-a-million chance that the “Special Person” that had eluded them (and Yusaku in particular) would be a Knight of Hanoi; and while this was gravely unfortunate, Kusanagi couldn’t let it stand in the way. 

He was happy. The Knights were disbanded. LINK VRAINS is safe. Yusaku is safe. And now, it’s Yusaku’s turn to be happy. 

Yusaku thought Kusanagi would be mad, furious even, that his anger would disappear and come back thrice as stronger as before. Or, maybe he’ll just be disappointed; give me one of those looks that silently expresses how I let him down, without even needing to say anything. 

Instead, Kusanagi’s stance relaxed, his posture visibly changed right before Yuskau’s eyes. A chuckle escaped his mouth. The chuckle evolved, becoming almost… relieved? Proud?

“You never cease to amaze me,” Kusanagi told his ward. 

“What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

Pulling the teen into a second hug, more tender and gentle yet shorter; Yusaku released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding as the tension of their conversation escaped. Ryoken was utterly confused. 

“You always do this.”

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“This!” Kusanagi exclaimed. “What you’re doing to him, with him at this moment! You just can’t stand to see other people suffer, or be sad or be in pain.”

“I’m just trying to help my friend,” Yusaku told him. “It’s what friends do.”

“No, Yusaku. It’s what you do. You might act like a stone-cold vigilante in VRAINS, but you’re really just a big softie. No, no, that’s not quite right. It goes deeper than that. You want to help people. You want to be a hero!”

“I just wanted to stop Hanoi,” Yusaku replied, but nobody bought it. 

“No, you didn’t. Revenge drove you, but so did empathy. You wanted to stop people like Dr. Kogami because of what you went through. To prevent anyone else from ever going through what you went through. You’re a double-edged sword: your pain makes you a better hero and a worse enemy.”

“I’m no hero.”

“Of course you are. You might not think of yourself as a hero but you are more than deserving of the title.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Not, particularly, no.”

Kusanagi pulled away, releasing the soft embrace. “Please, Yusaku. Just…be careful.”

“I always am.”

“That is the biggest lie you have ever told.”

It totally was. And everyone in the room knew it. 

________________________________________________

Yusaku and Kusanagi were seated in the main living room of the Kogami household. An expansive yet barren location, Yusaku noted that some of the only possessions in the entire household were books, neatly-arranged and freshly-sharpened pencils, loose sheets of printing paper, decorative pens with various different colors of ink, and color-coded notebooks that spanned the entire rainbow. Truly, Ryoken Kogami was someone that valued artistic skills and the creativity of his own two hands over computers, hacking and electronics. 

Yusaku was sitting on a small wooden chair with some cushioning on the body, Kusanagi was seated on a magenta couch, across from him, with a clear view of both Ryoken and Yusaku himself. The two heard a few quick but unclear mumbles, Ryoken talking on the phone over in the kitchen. 

“…Mhm…yes…please, hurry…yes, that’d be great…I’m so scared, please, come quickly…”

He was doing his best “on the brink of crying and uber-emotional” voice. Trying to convince the paramedics that, no, he had no idea his father had suddenly flat lined, he was out running some errands. It didn’t seem to be arousing any suspicion. 

“I still don’t like this,” Kusanagi muttered, switching focus from Yusaku to Ryoken. 

“I’m well aware,” Yusaku indifferently responded, the passion, desperation and sadness largely gone, replaced by his usual casual demeanor. 

“But I’m doing this for you.”

“Mhm.”

“Please, just…don’t do anything risky. And don’t isolate yourself from the rest of us.”

“I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t.”

“You know I only have your best interests in mind, right?”

“Of course, and I’m grateful.”

And it was true, on both ends. Kusanagi, in spite of his judgement, knew that this might be the catharsis that Yusaku deserved after spending so much time angry and alone; and Yusaku knew that Kusanagi knew this. It was a mutual understanding of the teen’s emotional state and their perceptions of one-another. 

“…yes, thank you, thank you so much…” Ryoken murmured in the other room. 

Suddenly hanging up the cell phone and putting it in the back pocket of his grey pants, Ryoken stepped back into the living room. Draped over his shoulder was a brown leather bag filled with some clothes for the night, and under that he was wearing a forest green jacket. “An ambulance is on its way. This place is a little outside the city limits, so it might be a few minutes."

Standing up and grabbing his backpack, Yusaku diverted his attention to the doorway. “That gives me enough time to make a grand exit. Don’t be too long.”

“I won’t,” Ryoken replied with a smile. 

He wasn’t.


	3. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So...Ryoken's gonna crash at Yusaku's place. An awkward car ride with Kusanagi, followed by a heartfelt conversation between two childhood friends with feelings that are a biiiit more than platonic.

The first night together was the most unexpected. 

Resolving to gather the rest of his possessions in the morning, Ryoken simply grabbed a change of clothes, some books, a toothbrush and toothpaste. His family owned a few storage units at a nearby facility; he would just drop off everything he needed there. 

Kusanagi was…still angry. Less so, of course, but confused, sure. However, he was willing to put those emotions aside. For Yusaku’s sake. 

After several further minutes of Yusaku trying to convince Kusanagi that Ryoken wasn’t a threat, and Kusanagi repeating over and over again for Yusaku to stay safe, complimented by Ryoken awkwardly waiting in the kitchen and pretending that he couldn’t hear every word of the argument; Kusanagi finally gave his goodbyes to the two teens. It took a while for Yusaku to convince his guardian that Ryoken wasn’t going to shank him in the middle of the night, but it finally happened. 

________________________________

Kusanagi was driving Ryoken and Yusaku home in his hot dog truck. The last of the sun’s rays had long since dissipated in the fully formed night, leaving only a darkness that consumed the town, the full moon a beacon of luminous hope, gazing optimistically down on the three. 

Kusanagi was sitting in the driver’s seat (obviously), his dark smoky eyes gazing down the busy road of Den City, concentrating solely on the passengers of his vehicle without saying anything. Yusaku was sitting in the back, as was Ryoken, the two facing each other. Ryoken’s body language spoke volumes about his current emotional state; legs and arms folded on each other, eyes gazing lazily out the window, as if trying to make himself as compact as possible in the hopes the shadows of the truck would devour him and remove him from this situation entirely. 

The drive was completely silent for the whole way. Well, at least it was in the car itself; outside, noises of other vehicles whizzing by blended with pedestrians chatting on the sidewalks and the occasional clunk of the archaic, loud trick whenever it hit a speed bump, all in a harmony of sound. 

Yusaku hated it. 

He was always the kind of person that preferred silence to noise; in noise, the voices of other people distracted him too much. He was marginally less focused on whatever it was he was doing at the moment, whether it be schoolwork (which he rarely did, but that’s not the point), coding, or some dueling-related activity within VRAINS. 

That was a major reason why Yusaku dislikes the practice of Speed Dueling. Sure, he got used to it in time, but at first, the sound of the virtual wind rushing by his ears in a purple gale of flurry data bits was overwhelming to his senses; he excelled at dueling, but it was harder to focus on the duel itself when the noise blasted his ears into oblivion. All this without the risk of falling off the Duel Board entirely, an event that would surely cause some type of mental damage in the real world. 

Luckily, he adapted to Speed Duels in time, but loud noises in general were still a sore spot for Yusaku. When he was younger, his neurologist told him this was a common side effect in kids on the Autism Spectrum; people like him tended to have a strong affinity for silence, or at least softer noises that weren’t so distracting. 

Despite this, Yusaku was deathly nervous about the fact that no one was talking. 

Sure, in any other instance, he would have absolutely preferred that everyone around him just shut up. But this wasn’t any other instance; this was Ryoken Kogami, traveling with Yusaku and his guardian, Shoichi Kusanagi. 

And no one. Was Saying. Anything. 

Kusanagi was usually such a chatterbox that he matched well with Yusaku’s more quiet and reserved presence in any given conversation, and usually he could maintain an entire conversation with Yusaku without ever needing him to speak. Which was why it was so surprising that Kusanagi of all people hadn’t been saying anything. Yusaku chalked this silence up to three reason:  
1: Kusanagi was still cautious about Ryoken, despite Yusaku’s wishes otherwise, but there was nothing they could do about that. As much as Yusaku hated to admit it, Ryoken was right: Kusanagi had every right to be suspicious, but hopefully his guard would be worn down in time.  
2: Ryoken was probably thinking the exact same thing, trying to keep himself as silent and still as possible in the truck out of acknowledge towards Kusanagi’s caution towards him.  
3: Yusaku had spent so goddamn long debating the dynamics of the silence that he had completely forgotten to say anything himself throughout the entire ride. 

Finally, and without Yusaku initially realizing it, the truck pulled into a nearby parking lot to some fast food establishment. Kusanagi looked back at his two passengers, keys still in the ignition and hand still on the steering wheel. “Alright you two, I need to head back to my apartment, but you shouldn’t have any troubles making it to Yusaku’s. I’ll…see you two in the morning, I guess. Yusaku, give me a call if you need anything.”

“Alright.” Ryoken didn’t say anything, he just got up from his seat and wordlessly pulled the door open to the truck before stepping out, his movements silent and gentle. Once Ryoken was out of the truck, Kusanagi called out to Yusaku: “Hold on a second.”

Giving his ward a look of caution and protectiveness that practically screamed ‘Be careful’ in a subtle manner, Kusanagi simultaneously rotated his silver keys in the ignition, firing up the engine. Without even needing to say anything, he conveyed his deep love for Yusaku. It was a gesture that touched the teen hacker to his core, but also annoyed him: he’s with Ryoken right now. He’s more safe than ever.  
Driving off into the night, Kusanagi gave the two boys a small, rapid wave before retracting his arm back into the vehicle. Yusaku watched for a moment, before stepping out of the parking lot and onto the path that led to his residence. 

“What did Kusanagi ask about?”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Yusaku quickly replied, putting on his best poker face. 

“It was about me, wasn’t it?”

Yusaku didn’t reply. He didn’t need to affirm Ryoken was right; they both already knew. 

Walking down the gray sidewalks of Den City, the warm summer air whipping past his dual-colored hair and school uniform, Yusaku looked up at the night sky, pensive and mute. Ryoken was walking alongside him, occasionally slowing his pace slightly so as to not get too far ahead of the shorter boy. They might be the only ones on the sidewalk, but it was far from quiet; the bustling noises of cars, buses and taxis still whipped around them, past brightly lit apartments and office buildings filled with technology, creating an all-consuming aura of noise, screens and electricity. But to Ryoken Kogami, whose attention was focused only on his silent partner, the world around them might as well have been silent and it wouldn’t have made a difference.  
“Talk to me.”

“About what?”

“What the hell was that? Back there, with Kusanagi?”

“I wasn’t wrong,” Ryoken told him. “It’s perfectly justified that he would dislike and distrust me.”

“But you didn’t need to say that.”

“He already knew. I was simply trying to convey to him that I understood his position on my presence in your life. It was a gesture of mutual understanding.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

The two continued walking through the town, bursting with energy and people and life. 

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Ryoken didn’t need to say anything for Yusaku to know that this man, his peer and his companion; was spiraling into thoughts of anxiety. Over-thinking things: it was a specialty of Yusaku’s, and he knew how to deal with it in other people. Well, maybe “knew” isn’t the right word, but he had a vague idea. 

“You don’t need to speak, your thoughts are too loud.”

“Preposterous.” 

“You’re worried about Kusanagi?”

“Of course. Aren’t you? He’s your friend after all.”

“Guardian.”

“What?”

Suddenly stopping dead in his path, the illumination of Yusaku’s relationship with Kusanagi became clear. If this were a cartoon, a lightbulb would have gone off over Ryoken’s head. Of course, he thought, that’s why he was with us, and why he was so much older, and so concerned. Yusaku stopped shortly afterwards, a few steps ahead of the white-haired hacker. “Yeah, after the Lost Incident…I spent about 9 years living on my own. Well, not technically on my own. In and out of foster homes, going from one family to another.”  
“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I made some good friends. Had some good foster siblings.”

“What happened?”

Yusaku faced him, tone becoming solemn, mournful, almost as if to say All good things must come to an end. It was abrupt, distressing, worrisome. “I learned about Hanoi.”  
Oh no, Ryoken thought. The color drained from his face in an instant, dread consuming his features, his thoughts. 

“I started researching them. Living on my own. I had a couple of gifts from foster families, classmates, teachers over the years. I held onto them. A peer of mine from middle school informed me that the prices would decrease with VR technology over time. Once SOL started opening it up to the public more, using cheaper technology—“  
“—No, don’t tell me”

“I sold them. All of them. Most of my possessions. Whatever I could to make money. Bought a headset, started diving into VRAINS.”

“You went after them?”

“Not at first. At first, I was just looking for info: where the Hanoi had bases, if they had any, who became members, how they recruited. I was hoping to get inside the group, maybe learn more about how they functioned.”

Rubbing the back of his dual-colored hair as he awkwardly recounted the memories, embarrassed and nervous in both the past and present, Yusaku continued. “Some teachers got worried about me. Told my current foster family. I managed to get emancipated. I was only 15, but I hacked into some of the records, made them think I was older. Started living on my own, learning more about Hanoi and VRAINS, but nothing about the Lost Incident.” 

“That sounds awful.”

“I have no idea.”

What? Ryoken thought to himself, but before he could voice his broad question, Yusaku elaborated. “I should explain. I have no idea if it was awful or not. I was in and out of school, eternally exhausted. Somehow, I stayed afloat in my academics, but only barely; falling behind was a reality, failing was a possibility. I was just so…driven. Focused. Everything else felt like a mirage that took secondary priority: hygiene, sleep, food.”

Ryoken was horrified. He could barely speak; the description was so vivid, so raw that all he could do was visualize the scene. He felt like he was plucked out of the present, bustling and dark and bright, into the past. His brain turning these descriptions into images: Yusaku thin as a twig and near skeletal; the dark bags under his eyes magnified and doubled in size, capturing bloodshot eyes; alone in his room, every day and night, his physical body wasting away as he fled into the virtual world. Cursing his dark mind for crafting these scenes and forcing him to watch, Ryoken felt like he was going to collapse. The gravity of his legs and chest practically pulled him to the cement ground; he was going to cry, or die, or something. 

“I’m…so sorry you had to go through that.”

Yusaku shrugged nonchalantly, seemingly oblivious to the history and magnitude of his own depressive episodes. “I should’ve been there,” Ryoken told him, shame and anger and guilt filling his muscles. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

“You didn’t leave me,” Yusaku assured him. The city of life around them quickly wasted away into an empty dome of oblivious silence; all in the world disappeared for Yusaku. All except Ryoken. Placing his hand into his own, that familiar warming cold of flesh on his fingers, Yusaku pulled himself towards Ryoken and pulled Ryoken out of his own darkness. 

Snapping back into the real world, Ryoken listened intently as Yusaku finished the story, the sound of people (specifically of one person) filling his ears. 

“I encountered Kusanagi early on in my time as Playmaker. Back then, I wasn’t even known as Playmaker; just an anonymous ghost, a digital phantom, an “Unknown”. I had only made the avatar a few weeks ago. I had no success in trying to get inside the group; the very thought made my skin crawl, and I feared I would inadvertently expose myself. So I took to direct action.  
I saved him from a few Knights. Defeated the leader of the small group. Afterwards, he told me about his brother, Jin, another victim of the Lost Incident. Consequently, we formed a partnership. He helped me acquire the Cyberse Deck I have now.”

Coming into his consciousness like waves in the bright night, Yusaku suddenly recalled the relief and solidarity in finding Kusanagi; someone whose brother had also been a victim of the Lost Incident. Someone who connected with and understood Yusaku, deeper than any other. 

“I met Jin. I met the rest of their family. He started to check up on me frequently. He helped me get back on track: start going to school regularly again, start eating again, showering and bathing frequently.”

Thoughts of the Kusanagi family filled Yusaku’s head, the reactions of the rest of the group when Shoichi introduced them to Yusaku. He rarely saw them lately, ever since things started heating up again with the Knights. But now that was over. It was all over. He'd probably go visit them soon. Mr. and Mrs. Kusanagi were likely worried about him; she'd fuss on him for not eating better, he'd ask if Yusaku met anyone and give him an awkward eyebrow raise. Everyone would laugh.  
They weren't quite like foster parents. But they were Shoichi's parents, so they were connected to Yusaku. Almost like grand-parents. Grand-guardians? He wasn't sure. He just knew he appreciated them. 

From across the street, a few people started staring at the two teens, holding hands in the street, silent and still as solid statues. It brought Yusaku’s attention back to the fact that there was an outside world beyond his own thoughts, his own feelings, and Ryoken. “I’m sorry,” Yusaku muttered, pulling his hand away. “We should keep going. I got us off track; you didn’t ask for that whole story.”

“No, no, don’t apologize!” Ryoken cried out. “As long as you want me to be your comrade and your special person again…I should know about what I missed.” The moon above them rose to the center of the ebony air in a bullseye. “Well, I suppose you didn’t miss much in the last decade.” Ryoken didn’t reply. He looked shamefully down at his shoes. Mourning the memories, the time and life he missed. He could never get back that time, but he could at least try to make up for it. 

The two started walking again, the dark brightness of the city carving its way back into their line of vision and their perception of the world around them. “What are you thinking about?” Ryoken asked, his baritone radiating a gentle, sensitive and insightful aura. 

“You,” Yusaku told him. 

Ryoken chuckled. Admiration, respect and affection filled his heart as he faced Yusaku. The feeling was mutual. “Why are you worried about Kusanagi?” Yusaku asked. 

“If what you say is true, and I have no reason for it not to believe it is…it makes me unsure of how well his family will react. It worries me.”

“Don’t be worried. He’ll come around. He might be stubborn, but he knows that you’re not evil.”

“His words implied otherwise.”

“I think I got through to him. What I said about Jin, I mean. He wouldn’t have let you walk with me otherwise.”

Yusaku hoped that this would assure his friend, ease his worries about their future. But Ryoken didn’t voice any assurance, and his body language implied he didn’t feel it either. His footsteps grew heavy and slow, as if his feet were steel. 

“…Yusaku?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you know I’m not lying?”

Ryoken’s face was twisted with solemn anxiety. His pace had slowed until he had practically stopped in the sidewalk. “Lying? About what?”

“Jin. Kusanagi. The Incident.”

He gravely enunciated the words as if they would fly right past Yusaku’s ears without his mind ever comprehending their meaning. “Why are you asking?” Yusaku questioned. 

“It’s just…what if Kusanagi’s right? What if I actually am a bad person, intending to betray you like he thinks?”

“Well…are you?”

“No,” Ryoken replied, bitterness and determination embedded in the one-syllable answer. “I already told you: I’m done being indecisive. My heart will never waver again; I don’t intend to leave anything soon, especially after what you told me about your life before you met Kusanagi.”

“You don’t need to wor—“ 

“But I do! If I had left all those years ago, actively prevented our separation…you wouldn’t have been like that. I could’ve—no, would have—helped you.”  
Yusaku shrugged, the paradoxical and contradictory conversation confusing him. “So…what’s the problem?” Tenderly speaking to his companion, Yusaku choose his words carefully, trying to comprehend this train of thought and how to approach it. “Help me understand, Ryoken.”

Ryoken pondered for a moment how to phrase his woes. “I just…I know about my reputation. My history, my experiences. It makes sense why Kusanagi wouldn’t trust me, but in order to truly feel comfortable going forward in our relationship, we have to eliminate any suspicion or possibility that one of us is trying to hurt the other.”

Yusaku didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. Did Ryoken really not trust me? he thought to himself. 

“Are…are you saying that you think…I would hurt you?”

“No, no, absolutely not! I know you don’t want to hurt me; you are the instigator for this friendship. You presented the offer that I join you, not the other way around. And it was after you defeated me, after I was at your mercy, after the Knights had crumbled. My father was already deceased; you could have left if you wanted to. Your revenge was satisfied, after all. To defeat me for the sake of vengeance would be redundant. If you wanted to harm me, you could have easily done so already. Battling me and proposing a friendship were obviously not some long-term plan to inflict pain, but instead, a genuine extension of your desire to save me.”

Yusaku had…no idea what to say. Ryoken had clearly been pondering the subject in many ways, from every angle he could. There are only so many ways to rationalize human emotion, and Ryoken had done them. 

“But…I asked the question because I want to prove that my feelings are genuine. In light of what I explained moments ago, I know you possess no malice towards me, but I need you to verify that the same also applies to me.” 

Yusaku was stunned, barely following what Ryoken was saying, but once it clicked, it all started to come together. A knowing smile appeared on his face. Bright and assuring; a counterweight to Ryoken’s grim expression. 

“C’mon,” Yusaku told him. “Let’s keep walking. My apartment is only a few minutes away.” 

Nodding slowly, almost as if in shock, Ryoken followed while Yusaku explained.  
“I know that you’re not lying about Jin for three reasons: #1, you told it to me after I saw you in the real world. It’s like you said: by that point, the Knights were all but annihilated and your father was dead. Therefore, you had no reason to lie. If you were lying, the odds of such an alibi holding up for so long are incredibly low.  
“Reason #2: you’re right: I’m obviously not out to destroy you, and one of the chief reasons that proves this is because I proposed friendship. This means that if you were trying to gain my friendship for the sole purpose of betraying me later, lying would be completely unnecessary, unless it was to convince anyone else of your intentions. The only person in question in such a situation would be Kusanagi. However, you didn’t know before tonight that Jin was Shoichi’s brother; the knowledge that you freed Jin was a major reason why he was (relatively) comfortable with your presence. However, being completely unaware of this relation between the Kusanagi brothers, there would have been know way for you to manipulate that outcome in your favor.  
“Reason #3: If you were lying, you wouldn’t ask me how you knew you weren’t lying.”

Upon finishing the final reason, Yusaku noticed Ryoken furrow his brow in confusion and opted to elaborate. 

“In the event that you were lying about Jin, or really about anything, it would be incredibly stupid and risky to draw attention to it; that risks me finding some reason why the lie wouldn’t work and discovering your misleading nature. But that didn’t happen; the very fact that you proposed proving your sincerity proves your sincerity in of itself.”

A slice of cold wind blew through the night, chilling the air and sending a shiver up Yusaku’s spine and blowing his hair in every possible direction, covering his eyes and obscuring part of his field of vision. Instinctively grabbing onto and rubbing his upper arm for warmth, his teeth began to chatter. Taking notice of this, Ryoken moved the strap to his bag over his head and peeled off his jacket, swiftly removing his arms from the sleeves and placing it around Yusaku’s shoulders. 

“Here, take this, it should keep you warm.”

“That’s ridiculous, now you’ll get cold.” Yusaku began to pull off the jacket, put Ryoken immediately grabbed onto the fabric of the shoulders before he could do so and pulled the article of clothing right back onto Yusaku’s slender frame. 

“It’s fine, I don’t get cold easily.”

“Are you sure?”

“Fujiki, just take it,” Ryoken stubbornly retorted. Wrapping it around his uniform, Yusaku pulled a corner of the jacket up to his mouth and nose. “My building isn’t much farther from here,” he muffled through the fabric, quickly changing the subject, “but I also wanted to tell you something else.”

“Oh? Pray tell, what is it?”

After a moments pause, Yusaku replied: “I wanted to tell you that you shouldn’t feel guilty for missing so much.”

Ryoken said nothing, he just looked shamefully at the concrete beneath his feet. Yusaku considered releasing one corner of the forest green jacket draped around him to hold Ryoken’s hand again, or pat his shoulder or do something, but he quickly remembered he wasn’t particularly great at comforting people, so he opted to continue. 

“You missed so much of my life,” Yusaku told him, “but it’s a two-way street. I missed a lot of your life. We shouldn’t feel bad for that, for all the lost years; instead, the mutual absence should propel us to want to be with each other and make up for lost time.”

Ryoken didn’t say anything, but from the blowing strands of his blue-and-pink hair, Yusaku noticed a thin and faint yet beaming grin materializing on his face, and suddenly, Ryoken didn’t need to say anything; a picture spoke a thousand words, and by god, Yusaku was looking at a masterpiece right now. 

“We’re here.”

Diverting course and pulling into the light grey section of his multi-colored apartment building, Yusaku pulled off his jacket, handing it back to Ryoken as he spoke, who in turn pulled it back onto his muscular frame and over his white buttoned shirt. Yusaku hadn’t been out this late in a while; having spent most nights in VRAINS, he completely forgot about how the night masked the livelihood of the building, how the orange and maroon bricks turned dark alongside the ruby and emerald-colored roofs, like a haunting rainbow of shadows. 

Fumbling to get his keys, Yusaku looked over at Ryoken, who was observing the apartment building, standing on the border of the sidewalk, one foot on the path leading to the door and the other extended a tad backwards onto the empty road. Even in the night, the moonlight illuminated some sections of the structure, revealing an architectural style of mismatched colors that seemed almost too bright and cheerful for this to be the residence of well-known introvert and stoic Yusaku Fujiki; a far-cry from the solid colors of every other building on the block. 

At last, and without the entranced Ryoken realizing it at first, Yusaku unlocked the small grey door into the apartment. He took a step inside the narrow space, then remembered the existence of his friend. Looking back, Yusaku found Ryoken almost in a daze; he wanted to interrupt, but he realized he had no idea what to say, and he kept his mouth shut. 

“You’re right.”

Ears perking up, Yusaku suddenly took a step back out, from the creaky wood of his home to the solid concrete of the city. 

“We’re hackers, not time travelers. It’s foolish of us to think that we can rewrite the past, when all that any of us can really do is rewrite the future; or rather, write it to begin with.”

Yusaku leaned against the opening of the door, a mischievous, content smirk on his face, matching his companion’s thoughtful and considerate expression. “And?” Yusaku jokingly asked. 

Taking his foot off the deserted road and bringing it forward in a slow, methodical pace, Ryoken quickly minimized the distance between him and the person who saved him, his voice leisurely and loving.  
“We shouldn’t spend another moment apart.”

Putting his hands up against Yusaku’s face and pulling him closer, paralleling the nearly identical gesture back at the Kogami mansion, Ryoken officially closed the distance between them.  
The kiss was short, clumsy and awkward, evident of their mutual inexperience, but it didn’t matter; it was sweet, heartfelt and passionate, a sum of the deep love between the two. It was the same love that drove Ryoken to help Yusaku as children, the love that pushed him to his enemy’s side years later, the love that woke Yusaku up every morning, and the love that haunted both of them in a phantasmal form for the last decade; but that haunting was officially over, and what was once phantasm became physical. 

Ryoken was initially surprised when Yusaku didn’t pull away from the unexpected gesture, but no one with a pair of functioning eyes would be; it would have been plain to the everyman that the gleam in Yusaku’s gaze, that brightness that illuminated and filled his entire body with light, only ever materialized when Ryoken was in the vicinity. Yusaku wrapped his hands around each other behind Ryoken at the center of his back, pushing the taller boy closer to him ever so slightly, deepening the kiss and simultaneously recalibrating his balance. He took a step backwards, and Ryoken followed, the two stumbling clumsily into the building and closing the door behind them, as if each other’s presence completely wiped the structure from their minds. 

Ryoken pulled away, quickly, as if worried his lips would somehow hurt his lover, but when he opened his eyes, all he could see was the soft face of the boy he loved, a gentle grin on Yusaku’s face, his emerald eyes lit up in an explosion of joy. 

“I love you,” Ryoken breathlessly whispered, his soft words echoing faintly in the narrow hallway, bouncing off the walls and magnifying back. 

“I know.”

This time, Yusaku initiated the kiss, and it was as if ten years of feelings super-charged the two. 

Ten years of feelings, flowing and pooling as a freshwater river. Ten years of feelings, intersecting and colliding as elements in a particle accelerator. Ten years of feelings, blossoming as a gorgeous rose in a gorgeous garden.

It was the kind of moment that Ryoken dreamt about but never dared to think about while awake, lest he force himself to deal with the cold world of reality. It was the kind of moment that Yusaku dreamt about every waking moment, an escape from the cold world of reality that consumed him so. 

This kiss was much longer, a gentle and calming motion. Unlike last time, when Yusaku pulled away, he did so painstakingly slowly, as if Ryoken was an oxygen tank and being more than a few centimeters away would instantly kill both parties. Ryoken didn’t dare open his eyes, for fear that when he did so, he would be back in his empty, cheerless sleeping quarters at Kogami mansion, the ever-elusive Playmaker having returned to his dreams more lifelike and beautiful than ever. But this wasn’t a dream, Ryoken wasn’t back at the Kogami residence, and, ever a man of his word, he would fulfill his promise: forever connected, the two would never part the other’s company, until the end of time. 

“I love you too, Ryoken Kogami…

…I always have.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the entire fanfiction just as buildup to the final two lines.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first ever fanfic, thanks for reading it to the end! If reception to this is good I think I'll continue it. So far I have three chapters for this written, but I might make more now that I'm quarantined. I appreciate any feedback, but please note I did write this over a year ago and only just now made an account to post it, so some of what I say in the fic might be contradicted by newer canon. 
> 
> The big speech was inspired by a couple of things. I wrote this after a rewatch of Dark Side of Dimensions and The Last Jedi, so it incorperates elements of both Yugi's speech to Kaiba and Snoke's speech to Ben about his soul being "split to the bone". But it also has elements of Yuya telling Aster that his heart swings like a pendulum from Arc-V.


End file.
